RASTAFARIANS Islam interprets the relationship between a man and a woman as one, which should make many babies while living a peaceful existence. “...(God) has created men and women as company for one another, and so that they can reproduce and live in peace and serenity according to the commandments of Allah and the directions of his messenger.” On the other hand,“...(Rastafarians) view the position (of) women as a (weak-willed) one.” “...(Although) women are respected,...(and sometimes) even feared, (because of) their powers of fertility,...(their existence is still gazed upon as a fragile one).” Although both religions entrust the women with existence, thereby acknowledging that a woman’s womb is the giver of life, the women in these religions do not hold the same status as their male counterparts. The men (almost always) have extra marital affairs, and have many children, under the one condition that he keeps his wife happy “...(with the penis)” and supports his family. “(Nevertheless), the control of women by men is reinforced through myth and symbol”.
The Rastafarian religion began in Africa. Although it has no founder, Marcus Garvey’s philosophy influenced it in its beginning. Born in 1887, directed ideologies that grew into the Rastafarian movement. In the early 1920’s, Garvey was the puissant black spokesman and founder of the “Back to Africa” movement. Garvey often spoke of the reparation of his people as coming from a future black African king. On one occasion, during a speech at one the meetings, Garvey proclaimed, “Look to Africa for the crowning of a black King, he shall be the Redeemer”. A few years later that prediction was realized when Ethiopia’s king, Ras Tafari Makonnen (hence the name Rastafarian) took the throne on November 2,1930. Upon coronation, he claimed for himself the titles of Emperor Haile Selassie (Power of the Trinity) I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe Judah, Elect God and King of the Kings of Ethiopia.
Selassie was